Ayres Houghtelling’s Alice in Wonderland up for auction at Sotheby’s tomorrow

Alice in Wonderland (1947) by Ayres Houghtelling, egg tempera and gouache on board

Ayres Houghtelling’s groovy painting of Alice in Wonderland, intricately imagined with egg tempura and gouache on a surprisingly small board, will go up for auction at Sotheby’s on April 5th with an estimated price of $10k-$15k. It was described by blogger Kathy Hernandez thusly: “No picture has ever drawn me in like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Ayres Houghtelling (b. 1912). Alice is pictured at least 24 times in this [22″ by 28″] print as she makes her way through all the major events of the book.” An LCSNA member tipped us off with this nice note: “Hello, I have a print of this original, it is a favorite and I just found out the original will be up for auction this week. A beautiful work from an artist (1940’s) who loved fantasy and Alice. Ayres was also famous for many things, one being the drawing out of the NYC subway plans.” Houghtelling died six years ago in 2006.